THE NEW MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE DESIGN TEAM FOR 2011

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you will know the fondness I have for entering almost every week's sketch challenge. And when Priscilla recently had a design team call I decided to try my luck, with absolutely NO EXPECTATION of being accepted - have you seen the creations of the DT members there??!! They are awesome!!

well ... I made it ! ... I was SO surprised that you could have blown me over with a feather!
I am now the Sponsorship Co-ordinator - how awesome is that???

So here is the New Design team for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge

PRISCILLA (blog owner)

CHARLOTTE (Senior DT)
DARSIE (Senior DT)
DENISE (Senior DT)
GUNN (Senior DT)
LINDA (Senior DT)
PHYLLIS (Voting coordinator)

~~~~~~~~~~~

BONNIE

DAWN

GURO

JEN (Sponsoring Coordinator)>>>>>>>>>> (that's ME!)

LORIE

MARSHA

REBECCA

RENEE

Please hop on over to each of the member's blogs to see just how talented each of these ladies are! And leave a little bit of love to show that you've visited.

And please check back here every Tuesday to see my creation for the new week's Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge.

Here are some handy links for you to follow ...

THE MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE
CRAFTERS DIGITAL ART CENTRE

Perhaps you'll want to enter the MMSC each week too - there are awesome prizes to be won ...

A DAY FOR DAISIES NEWS RELEASES : 31 DECEMBER 2010

"Listen to the ocean
Echoes of a million seashells
Forever it's in motion ..."

Some of the lyrics to a 1960's song by Nina and Frederick - memories of my childhood, sitting in the lounge with dad, listening to the seven single record on the record player.

Those are the beautiful memories brought to mind when I first saw Tammy's adorable new images to be released today.

I used two images, and merged them into one to make this little beach scene, wich well could have been my brother Ron and I. Once again the image was coloured using my colured pencils and I used copics for the skin tones. A few little beads were sewn onto the 'sand' to emphasize the sparkle of wet seasand in bright sunlight.

The sentiment is a quotation that is written by that very well known Mr Anon, and it seemed to be so apt for the image. I printed it onto cardstock which was then cut using a Nellies Choice oval die and beaded. The ribbon detail I added afterwards. The background is make of various offcuts of scrapbooking paper which I had in my "nice to keep" drawer.

Here are some handy links you might like to use ...

Click here for the A Day for Daisies Store
Click here for the Challenge Blog
Click here to join A day for Daisies on CDAC
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on PCP
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on SSC

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL ...

My Christmas Eve post today is to show you one of the new releases at A DAY FOR DAISIES. The image is called "a bird in the hand" and this is the card I made ...



As you can see, I turned that cute little image into a little robin redbreast, and was inspired to write a little poem about the image, which was coloured using my coloured pencils and OMS. The rest of the card consists of gold metallic card, embossed using a Cuttlebug folder, and some green velvet Christmas ribbon. Beads and sequins were sewn on as embellishments.

Some handy links you might like :

A Day for Daisies online store .... click here
A Day for Daisies group on CDAC .... click here
A Day for Daisies group on SSC .... click here
A Day for Daisies group on PCP .... click here

All that's left for me to say is Merry Christmas ... may you spend it in the warmth and love of family and friends.

Bright Christmas Blessing
Jen Leeflang and family
Durban
Sunny South Africa

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL ...

NICECRANE DESIGNS

Nicecrane Designs is a new group on CDAC, headed up by an extrememly talented artist, Ignacio, from Spain. He specialises in vintage-style images, and takes his inspirations from old fashioned children's books illustrations, such as Alice in Wonderland, the WaterBabies, and some of the Mark Twain and Charles Dickens classics.

After joining the group there, Ignacio invited me to choose three images from his store - how generous is he? and ... what a sweet gesture!

So now I have another mermaid in my collection, as well as a Water Babies image, and an Alice in Wonderland. And to top that, Ignacio invited me to join his Design Team - what an honour and how could I resist?

You can visit his store here : and I am sure that as you browse through all those fabulous images, you will be taken back to the sweet memories of your childhood, and won't know which to pick as your favourite!

The current round of challenges on CDAC is on at the moment, and Ignacio provided one of the many freebie images called "A Christmas Carol". - This is my entry for that challenge:


I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of colouring the Nicecrane images, and I feel that it totally suits my style.

The card was made for the following two challenges:
CDAC Free Digi Challenge #13
Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #84

Why don't you hop along there and join in those challenge too?

What's new at A DAY FOR DAISIES? ....

Yes, lots happened this week at A Day for Daisies ...

First a bonus new release set of the cutest little boys images .. and for all of you mothers of sons, you will so identify with these images! They are just the cutest!

Then it was time for another set of new releases, a wonderful set of doggies with their humans, gorgeous little girls and boys who just love their pets! As one of the newest DT members I had the absolute honour of choosing two of these to use, to showcase Tammy's images ... and here they are.



The first is "My Doggie", and I coloured her in pinks and lilacs and made a cute girly card. I cut the image onto a a Nellie's Choice die cut and printed a quotation as a sentiment, The bp's consist of some printed scrapbooking paper from the thrift store, and cardstock which I embossed using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder. The pawprint is a punch and the embellishments are sewn on sequins (my signature), some flowers and a bow.



The second card is "Boy's Best Friend" and when I saw this image I thought 'old school and traditional' - not too many embellishments - and so I printed the digi onto cream cardstock, coloured in traditional pastels and added some pastel checked paper and ribbon, probably the only patterns available to mums in "those days" ... It was a bit of a change to my usual style, but it worked!

Then the other happening was the start of challenge #8 - and Tinsel and Tags ... is not that difficult for this time of the year, is it?



My tag is star-shaped, and has "My Little Angel" featured. She is colured using my coloured pencils, and I sewed on some flower sequins {of course}. I attached some gold tinsel all around the star border and doesn't it look like my little angel is really up there somewhere?

Please use the handy links below to check out the gorgeous images I have used for these projects, AND all the other equally gorgeous images in Tammy's store.

Click here for the A Day for Daisies Store
Click here for the Challenge Blog
Click here to join A day for Daisies on CDAC
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on PCP
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on SSC

Are you there yet?

I made the DIGIS BY PHOOKA Design Team - yippee!

I had completely forgotten that I had applied, and when I was informed on Saturday morning that I made the Design Team, I had such a pleasant surprise that it set the tone for a lovely weekend.

Digi's by Phooka is one f the newer groups on the Crafter's Digital Art Center, and Myriam describes her images as "Adorable images which you can colour and use for all your craft projects" and she is right ....



In celebration, I used the cute cupcake image from Myriam (the artist and owner of Digis by Phooka) and created this yummy card by layering three cupcakes and colouring in really delicious, fresh baked colours. I added some stick on gems and crystal glitter glue, and placed them on a die cut mat, cut from a Nellie's Choice Die. The background papers are from Wilson and Maclagan, and I added some MS WordArt as a sentiment. The embellies are paper flowers and a satin ribbon. And yes, the sewn-on beads and sequins are there too ~~~ how could they not be?

Here are some handy links :

CRAFTERS DIGITAL ART CENTREDIGIS BY PHOOKA GROUP

Please come along and join us there, some really fun activities have been planned in the form of challenges, events, and who knows, Myriam just may have a freebie for you to grab!

OVER THE MOON HAPPY - THAT'S ME TODAY!

I have been SO blessed with such good news today - I made the Design Team for Tammy's A Day for Daisies - my very favourite images! I love working with her gorgeous little images - I don't think anybody could make an un-pretty card with them. I get to display my DT badge on my blog here on the right, and you will be seeing many more of my ADFD creations, here on my blog and in the A Day For Daisies groups on CDAC, SSC and PCP.

Here is a card I made with the Christmas Angel called "Christmas Pixie 2". She and many many more fabulous images are available in her store here.


There is also a challenge blog called "The Flower Basket" that you can join, enter your ADFD creations, and perhaps win yourself some of Tammy's images too!

200 MEMBERS ON "A Day for Daisies" on CDAC

(for your convenience, I have added all the links at the end of this blog entry)

To celebrate her CDAC group's 200 member achievement, Tammy of A Day for Daisies gave every member a set of gorgeous little images as a gift.

This is my creation, using 'Pettel Pixie" for my entry in Challenges #7 on the Challenges Blog, where the brief was to use gift wrap.

Pettel was coloured using my watercolour pencils, and some bling was added to her wings. Then using the stencils from my favourite online scrapbooking supplies store, Scrapbooking-Scrapbook.co.za I marked where to place the flourishes of daisy sequins, which I sewed on, using invisible thread. As further embellishment, I attempted to recreate the "A Day for Daisies" logo in the bottom left hand corner.

The gift wrap was used as the dp, and the colours and print were just perfect for this image and the colours I used.

I would love you to join the "A Day for Daisies group, and to take part in their challenge. There are wonderful prizes for te winner every challenge! To create your perfect entry, please visit their online store to see all the absolutely amazing images that are available - you will find it extremely hard to choose .....

Here area few links that you might find useful:
a Day for Daisies online store
a Day for Daisies challenge blog
Mel's Scrapbooking-Scrapbook online store
Crafter's Digital Art Center

MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE #81

It's that time of the week again, and for my entry into this week's MMSC#81, I have used the very beautiful Victorian tea cup image available from the priscillastyles store here.

I recently added some Fabscraps scrapbooking papers to my stash, and the one I have used today is called Heritage Florals. Fabscraps is a South African company, situated not far away from where I live. Initially their products were only available locally, but I have just heard that the first shipment is on its way to the USA! I am sure that international papercrafters will love this range!
But back to my card ~ I used colours inspired by the floral backing paper to colour the teacup, and am so pleased with the result. The teacup is backed by some very pretty pink fabric print paper (a thrift store purchase)which I cut using a Nellie's Creations die. A strip cut from a paper doiley is the Victorian 'lace'.
As embellishments I used three pink paper roses, inked to match the colours of the b/p, and three flat-backed pearls.

The prizes to be won this week on the MMSC#81 are absolutely AWESOME!!!, and I would LOVE to be the winner of all those gorgeous crafting goodies! If you would also like a chance to win, why not pay along this week .... click here for more details.

This challenge is one I love to participate in, as are the exciting challenges on Crafters Digital Art Centre, a wonderful place for the crafter! Are you a member there yet?

DIGISTAMPS 4 JOY - "Use a Feather" Challenge

Time for another DS4J Challenge card from me ... and for this challenge you need to use a feather on your card - how easy!.. or so I thought! My first effort went into the bin ... this is my second, and a much better one.

Instead of the usual coloured image, I used a sentiment from the Digistamps 4 Joy store here, and this one is lovely ....

WORK
like you don't need the money
LOVE
like you've never been hurt
DANCE
like nobody's looking

and the meaning of that for me is to be PASSIONATE, I don't need be be the best at anything I do but I must do it with passion. I have no need to do anything with the sole purpose of becoming wealthy or famous, but I must be passionate!

There is not much to say about this card, it is what it is, a simple re-coloured sentiment printed onto a die cut card using a die from Country Crafts, some sewn on beads and sequins, a peacock feather and a satin and organza ribbon bow.

We would love you to take part in the DS4J challenge this week, just click [HERE] to link straight through for more details - you could be the winner of a gift voucher to spend in the Digistamps 4 Joy store.

If you love creating with digistamps and learning and sharing with fabulous and friendly crafters, and you are not yet a member of the Crafters Digital Art Centre, please click [HERE] to sign up. Oh yes, by the way, membership is free, and there are great tutorials, groups, challenges, free images and lots of new friends to be made. Now where else could you find that without hitting the PAY NOW button first?

GLITTERBABES "EASEL CARD" CHALLENGE

On Glitterbabes Challenge blog the challenge this week is to make an easel card, and as usual, embellish with lots of sparkle glitter. Her challenge is being sponsored by Nana Vic's Digitals so I decided to make an easel card using one of the free digi's Vickie provided on her Vickie Quickie for this week.

I know the bp was a download, but I am really not sure if it was from Glitterbabes freebies or that I saved them in her folder in error. I coloured the image using my watercolour pencils, added lots of crystal sparkly Skwiglues and sewed on a few stars and snowflakes. A blingy bow was added as the "doorstop".

I am rather proud of this card, as I get to enter it into two challenges, both the Glitterbabes Thursday Challenge, and Nana Vic's Vickie Quickie Challenge.

THE "Trim a Tree" Challenge @ Wink Wink Ink

The Wink Wink Ink Challenge Blog is running a "Trim a Tree" Contest. The tree image is supplied and all you have to do is to trim it! How much fun is that, and how easy-peasy???!!!

I printed the image after I had recoloured it to purple - YES! purple! cos I wanted to break traditions - PURPLE AND PINK - girly colours for a girly Christmas Tree!

I then set about decorating my tree, and you guessed it - out came the sequins, beads and rhinestones! I sewed them all on until the tree was suitably blinged, added a cute polka dot organza bow, a stick-on sentiment (very blinged!) and added a marbled paper background with a purple border.

Don't you just love the angel on the top of the tree?

MY BLOG AWARD - deleted

For those of you who I nominated for a Digi's with Attitude blog award -

If you are unable to find my post regarding my award i would like to let you know that I have deleted the post and the badge.

I fulfilled all the requirements expected of me, and emailed the owner of Digi's with Attitude store, who sent me my voucher of $10 to spend in her store,

Unfortunately, as I do not own a credit card, my order could not be completed and processed.
I was offered an alternative of one image ($3) but declined the offer. And I also deleted the badge and the post.

I apologize for any nconvenience.

PATTIE'S CREATIONS CALLENGE #5 : Anything but a Card!

....... so i made a little pillow box, small/big enough to hold a Christmas mince pie. What a lovely little gift to send your Christmas visitors home with?

I used cardstock with a dainty holly print for the box - I don't have a tutorial because I make these little boxes out of my head. I addded a length of Christmas ribbon on top of which was pasted a square die cut out using a Nellie's Choice die. Pattie's Cupcake digi was coloured using watercolour pencils and then blinged using green glitter glue for the base and heating embossing with clear sparkle embossing powder and my heat gun.

If you'd like to see more of Pattie's cute and versatile images, you can visit here shop here.

The embellishments used were some gold snowflakes, and a little Christmassy bow.

I added the Christmas mince pie so you can judge the size of the box.

I will enter this into Pattie's Creations Design Challenge #5 here.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE #80

Midnight Madness time again!

My card this week for the sketch challenge has been made using an image from A Day for Daisies, available in their store here.

This really beautiful image has been coloured using my water colour pencils and odourless spirits. The open oval shape in the centre has been filled with some paper roses, leaves and stamens. The embossed paper in the background was made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and my Spellbinder Wizard. A few sequins, beads and rhinetones have been handsewn onto the card.

The ribbons were made using the "fork" method to ensure that they all the same size and shape. You can check out the technque here.

The Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge is great and I never like to miss it each week. If you would like to participate in the challenge, please click here.

IF you would like to join Crafters Digital Art Centre to join the "A Day for Daisies" and many other fabulous groups, please click here.

I would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below.

GREETINGS FROM AFRICA

This week's Vickie Quickie in the Nana Vic's Digitals offered a fabulous "Warrior and Son" freebie with which to create a card. The minute I saw it I knew that I would be making a card similar to those that I have made (in abundance) for the Durban tourist trade. Cards similar to this one have found their way all over the world, and I am proud to say to the British Prince William for his 21st birthday. A complete stranger had purchased one of my ethnic African cards, composed a poem, and sent it to him for his birthday a few years ago. She received a beautiful thank you letter, remarking on the card, and she sent me a copy of that letter.

I coloured the image using my coloured pencils and own technique to give it a similar look to the many oil pastel drawings that are sold in Durban's curio shops. The top square features an embellishment made by my online friend, Charlie, who sent it to me in a parcel of RAK's recently. The embellishment in the bottom square has a border of African beading, which I sewed on using invisible thread. I added two porcupine quills, a guinea fowl feather, a raffia bow and beads made from seeds that the ethnic people use to make jewellery.

I will enter this card into the current Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #79, a challenge that I really love to participate in each week.

If you would like to join Nana Vic's Digitals Group on CDAC and play along on the Vickie Quickie each week, click here

If you would like to join in the challenges on the Midnight Madness Sketch challenges each week, click here.

PATTIE' CREATIONS DESIGN CHALLENGE # 4 : Happy Birthday

As both Pattie (owner of Patties Creations)and Sandi (Lead Designer of Design team 1 for Pattie's Creations are celebrating their birthdays this month, the theme for this week's challenge is "Birthday Card".

I am the Lead Designer for Design Team 2 and for my inspiration card this week I used Beach Pattieboop, and coloured the digi using my coloured pencils. the frame of the card is marbled blue, and onto that I sewed some blingy sequins and beads.
I matted the image and frame onto lilac cardstock and then onto printed "Happy Birthday" scrapbooking paper. The whole bang-shoot was then adhered to a pale blue card. The pale purple ribbon 'ties' the whole colour scheme together.

Here are a few links that you may find useful ...
To find Beach Pattieboop and other great images in Pattie's Etsy Store, click here
To go to this challenge on Pattie's Challenge blog, click here
To join the Pattie's Creations group on Crafters Digital Art Center, click here

A RECIPE CARD CHALLENGE : "A Day for Daisies"

Intially, what attracted me to go and see what this group was all about was that delightful name ... "A DAY FOR DAISIES" ... intriguing!!! And I was thrilled to discover that the images on offer here are even more delightful ... all absolutely beautifully created by Tammy! in fact. The store (here) is well worth a visit!!!

The current challenge is to incorporate a tried and tested recipe, so I chose Mediterannean Roasted Vegetables, a dish I always prepare to accompany a BBQ, especially the Christmas Day BBQ!

The ADFD (of course) image was recoloured to a lovely shade of blue and printed onto marbled blue paper (reminiscent of the Greek Isles). The recipe was also printed in blue. I coloured the image using quite a few different shades of blue regular colour pencils and highlighted some areas in green. A navy satin ribbon, royal blue bow and three flat backed pearls were added as embellishments.

I love the look of this card and think that it would make a great card to give a friend (male or female) as a birthday card.

If you would like to join the "A Day for Daisies" challenge, please click (here).

DIGISTAMPS 4 JOY CHALLENGE : Create a Christmas Card

I just love this time of year!!! In South Africa the weather is warming up (or getting hot and humid in the case of Durban where I live), It's exam time, school holidays, and that means it's nearly Christmas!

So, in preparation for Christmas, the Digistamps 4 Joy challenge this fortnight is to create a Christmas project. My chosen project is a traditional Christmas card, and making it untraditional.

A little out of the box thinking for me here ... so I started out using a sentiment that is very close to my heart (How many of us remember to say "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas Day?) Is Christmas really only about gifts and holly, huge meals and lots of parties? Yes, if we use those to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, but I think Christmas means a little bit more.

In the words of Dr Seuss ..."

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store?
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?

The shades of blue I chose are not traditionally Christmas colours, but they were inspired by the colour we all perceived Mary's robe to have been. Blue is also a serene peaceful colour, a feeling I wanted to evoke in my card.

The sentiment is from digistamps4joy.com and the flourish of sewn-on sequins and beads has been made using a template from scrapbooking-scrapbook.co.za. I added a spray of roses and a satin ribbon, and some Cola glitter glue (crystal).

I would love to hear what you think of this card - Is it too far removed from tradition to be Christmassy? or have I achieved my goal of a peaceful, thought-provoking card?

DANCE FOR JOY!!!!

Please excuse me - I am still on a high from my trip to Cape Town for the International Oriental Dance Festival last weekend! While there, I created this digi-image I called "For Joy" - and the paisley design in her hair shows the influence, as my friend Mel remarked. Mel digitized her and Joy is now the freebie for November in the Digistamps 4 Joy group.

Here she is, as I coloured her, using the vibrant turquoises, lilacs, golds and yellows. I sewed on some sequins in the paisley centres to add the bling factor - as I felt the image was busy enough on its own.

This card will be my entry for the Week 1 challenge in Card Corner in Simply Scrtappy Crafts, where I picked up on the word "joy" on the inspiration card.

If you would like to own the "For Joy" digi and view the rest of the fabulous digi's in the Digistamps 4 Joy online store ... click here
If you would like to join in the challenge in Card Corner... click here

MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE #78

I am really relieved that the pressure of finishing the belly dance costumes for the Festival is over, as I now can take part in my favourite weekly challenge, the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge.

For challenge no 78 I have used a Digistamps 4 Joy image called Winter Oval, and she is one that I designed as part of the Four Seasons Ovals, available in the Digistamps 4 Joy store here.

I coloured the image with my coloured pencils, and sewed some sequins around the oval. Crystal Skwiglue was added to her fur-lined hoodie, and three silver snowflakes as embellishment.

The two triangles are printed metallic white card and those are matted on silver metallic card. A border of lilac has been added to complement the purple in the image.

This was a great sketch to work with, as usual, and if you would also like to participate, you can check out all the details of the challenge here.

… you spin my head right round ….

The theme of the current Digistamps 4 Joy challenge is particularly apt … with me rushing to get everything ready for my trip to Cape Town (I am leaving tomorrow morning) I feel that I am spinning round and round at the moment, and yes, I have already caught my tail!For my DT inspiration card have taken the theme literally … “YOU SPIN MY HEAD RIGHT ROUND” … make a card using circles … so I used circles and made a spinner card.
I can’t provide you with a link to a tutorial for a spinner card, cos I didn’t use one.. I simply had the idea to make the die cut soccer ball spin, and applied my practical knowledge. So using a circular magnet and a couple of coins, a slot cut in the card, and voila! …. The ball spins.
The digi-image is from digistamps4joy.com, of course, and I coloured him using my coloured pencils. I added some freehand-cut grass, a die-cut circle behind him (just so I comply with the challenge conditions) and as embellishment added a stick-on soccer ball in his hand. The sentiment is Wordart, and the two O’s in HORRAY have been substituted for smaller stick-on soccer balls.
I printed out an image of a soccer net to add as the background for the spinning soccer ball.
This is the first time I have made a spinner card, and I am not sure if it is according to any set rules but all I do know for sure is…… IT SPINS RIGHT ROUND AND ROUND …………… very fast! It’s just a pity that you can't see it on the photograph.

I would love you to leave a comment and tell me what you think, especially if you have made a spinner card before.

This is such an exciting challenge, and even if you only use circles on your card, I think you should enter cos there are great prizes to be won. Click here to link to the challenge.

And this is the link to the digistamps4joy.com online store where you can purchase some really great digi’s (here’s some inside information … I hear there are some new images in the store … AND a freebie)!

THE BELLY BUTTON'S ARABIC FLAMENCO SKIRT

 

For those of you who don't know by now- I am off to Cape Town on Thursday for the Annual Oriental Dance Festival from 28 - 31 October.

This photograph is of the Arabic Flamenco skirts I made for some of tyhe bellyrina's (those with the pink , lilac and purple are the ones that I made).

BELLYRINA BRA FOR KATHERINE

Well, at long last the bellydance bra for Katherine is FINISHED ... yippee.

The bra is completely hand-beaded and all the embellishments are stitched on, making it hand-washable. The colours Katerine chose are burgundy and gold, and as I felt that just those two colours would be very 'flat' I added some deeper shades of pink and cerise to give it that WOW factor. Katherine's skirt is a shade of deep cerise with and overlay and veil of varying shades of burgundy, and all in all it makes for a very stunning outfit.

This outfit is one of the costumes she will wear at the International Oriental Dance Festival in Cape Town from 28 - 31 October, where she will perform as a member of the Belly Button Dance Studio, to which we both belong.

We leave for Cape Town on the 10.20 am flight on Thursday, 28/10 and will return late on Sunday evening. I am really looking forward to my annual getaway with the girls, and am starting to count the sleeps .....

THIS IS A FIRST FOR ME ....

What a thrill this is! As the Lead Designer of Design Team 2 for the Pattie's Creations Challenges, I am now hosting my very first Pattie's Creations challenge - a Colour Challenge, using yellow, orange, red and brown.
Here are the rules : A Pattie's Creations image is preferred but not required. If you use an image from PATTIE'S CREATIONS you will gain an extra entry and have a better chance to win! Stop over at her Etsy Store and browse around. There are FREEBIES too, just click on the link in the sidebar and grab one.

A winner will be chosen by Random.org. The winner will receive a $10.00 credit towards the purchase at Pattie's Etsy Store. A second winner for the 'Allie's Choice Award' will be chosen by the DT Leads and can proudly display our badge on their sidebar. The challenge starts now and ends Thursday, November 4th at 5PM CST (Central Time). PLEASE REMEMBER IF YOU USE ONE OF PATTIE'S CREATIONS IMAGES you will gain an extra entry.

My Design Team all made inspiration cards and so did I.

Here is my card.



I used Genie Pattieboop, which actually only has one hookah bottle, but I cut and pasted to make a row of bottles, and "broke" one of them, hence the name of my card, "Oops, i did it again ...."
As embellishments, I used some of my bellydance bra beading stash, the string of coins, and a couple of red acrylic rhinestones.
The sentiment is MS WordArt, and the card is metallic textured board, of which I rounded the two corners using my NEW corner punch (thanks Mel!)

All in all, a rather playful feel to the card, right up my street cos I thought Pattieboop looked just like Alice, a young bellydancer in one of our classes, a 14 year old livewire, full of energy and enthusiasm, sometimes to her own detriment. I would imagine, put in this situation with the hookah bottles, Alice would also have to say "oops, I ...."

I hope you like my card, and would love it if it inspired you to take part in the challenge too.

SIMPLY SCRAPPING CRAFTS : Card Corner - Week 2 Challenge

The October Week 2 Challenge at Simply scrapping Crafts is to use the colours of Fall, and this is the card I made. The image is one of Mo Manning's freebies - isn't that kitten and the FALL-ing leaf just the cutest?! Just a simple card, with a minimun of emebllishments (the three brown leaf gems) some coloured borders to complement the strong colours of the fall leaf in the image.

I will enter this card in the challenge, and eagerly await the challenge for week three.....

POPPIES for remembrance...

Today, as I was putting this card together, I received a telephone call to advise me that my mother-in-law had passed away in her sleep last night. So before I begin to tell you about the card, let me dedicate this card to her, Gerda Leeflang, may she rest in peace, while we celebrate the long and wonderful life she had.

I love you, Mom, thank you for all you did for me and for everything you taught me in the 23 years I had the honour of being a part of your life. I promise to love and look after your son and your grandsons forever.

Unfortunately, the poppy digi was one I saved early in my digi-journey and I did not make a note of who the designer is, but it is simple and elegant and just perfect for the Midnight Madness Sketch Callenge this week, as well as the "Black and White plus One" challenge on the Card Chat Challenge Corner on Simply Scrapping Crafts.

I coloured the digi in two colours of orange, (in the photograph the darker orange seems almost red - sorry I am not the best photographer) and then matted it in varying shades of orange and black, according to the specifications on both challenges.

Because the colours are so strong and striking I opted to go for the 'less is more' version of the MMSC sketch, as I think any embellishments would have been too fussy.

To join the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge and win some awesome prizes click here
to join the Card Chat Challenge Corner click here

A DAY FOR DAISIES

A Day for Daisies is an online digistore with GORGEOUS images. The artist, Tammy Thompson, is one of the most talented digi-artists I have come across, and she has a group (also called A DAY FOR DAISIES) on on Crafters Digital Art Center, that I recently discovered and joined. The latest "ADFD" challenge was layers and this is the colours of Fall inspired card that I entered,

AND I WON that challenge!!!!

I am OVERJOYED!!! As my prize I get to display this award badge on my blog
and I get to choose two digis from the A DAY FOR DAISIES store.

What FUN! ... but so hard to do ... I WANT EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!!!! ..... now I'm off to go and create something awesome with the digis I chose.... Which ones DID I choose? you ask...

Watch this space ....

FALL FAIRY - DIGISTAMPS 4 JOY

Round 8 of the Crafters Digital Art Center Challenges are on the go at present, and it's always great to take part in the Freebie Challenge! In the USA, it's Fall, Thanksgiving and Halloween within weeks of each other, and for the past two rounds of challenges we have had pumpkins, witches, bats and falling leaves.
Don't get me wrong - the Thanksgiving and Halloween digis are great fun, but totally useless to us in South Africa, as we don't celebrate either holiday. Now after over a month of colouring pumpkins (cos that's all I feel I have been doing) I have a pile of worthless (to me) cards that are really only good for paper-pulping.
I am not saying that they have been a waste of time and materials, quite the contrary on fact; I have got to learn, explore and perfect new techniques, and made many friends along the way.
But the real reason for this post, before I got carried away by the pumpkins, was to tell you about the non-pumpkin digi I designed for the Freebie challenge, still seasonal, as it is called Fall Fairy, but she's NOT A PUMPKIN!
I think she has such pretty face, and this is what she looks like once made into a card. Her face is coloured in Copics, and for the rest of the image I used regular colour pencils.
The Fall Fairy will be a freebie for the next couple of days, and after 26 October she will be in the Digistamps 4 Joy store where you will have to pay for her. Why not head over to the CDAC Freebie Challenge blog post right now now, snap her up while she's still a freebie, and join in the challenge?

It’s Digistamps4Joy Challenge time again !

For those of you who don’t know the name, Digistamps 4 Joy is the first South African online digistore – with run by a South African (Mel) with images by South African artists. And for me, being on Mel’s Design Team is such a treat, being able to play with some of the really off-beat, whacky images she has to offer.

Unfortunately, calamity struck the server for Digistamps4Joy, and after being ‘down’ for a couple of days, the digistore came back online – but oh! what gObLleDy-GoOk….. Mel has had to reload most of the newer images, and reshuffle the chaos. She’s nearly done now, after burning the midnight candle (at both ends)! Well done Mel!
If you are one of those who recently registered and now find that your account is not found, please re-register – that’s one of the casualties Mel can’t rectify.

Now to my card as your inspiration for this challenge:
Yippee – I love these challenges, especially sketch challenges – which is what it is this time around! Let’s start from the top layer, and work downwards .
- “Fairy Friends” is the digistamps4joy image I used
- the wings are paper-pieced, coloured and heat embossed
- the die-cut oval behind the fairies is embossed using a Cuttlebug folder
- three shiny heart embellishments from my stash
- shiny organza ribbon from my stash
- the sentiment is computer generated and then embossed using the same Cuttlebug folder
- the white border made using my Fabscraps punch
- the striped, swirly BP is unmarked, but part of the same piece of mini scrapbooking paper
- all matted onto a piece of deep red Nepalse handmade paper.

Phew – a lot going on there – no wonder it took me so long to put the whole thing together!

PS : Just as a bonus – there’s a ds4j freebie for you at part of the CDAC FREEBIE CHALLENGE #8, and I have made a card, which you can see here. Grab the freebie while you can because she’ll be in the store next week and then you’ll have to pay ….
If you'd like to see the card I made with her, click here!
Thanks for looking, thanks for reading this marathon post, leave a comment if you like, and I hope to see your entries for the DS4J challenge where I can comment on your project too!

TODAY - NO ABC - JUST A PROUD MUM!

Our oldest son Nicholas (21) accomanpanied his girlfriend, Storm, to her Matric Ball(that's 12th and final year for my international friends)on Friday Evening. The theme was a Masked Ball, and this is a photograph of them just as they were leaving home to go.
I decorated their masks using glitter, sequins, rhinestones and peacock feathers.

Storm wore a beautiful taffeta ball gown in a midnight blue shade, with velvet stiletto sandals and a pretty little lace wrap. Her naturally thick long hair was curled and half pinned up with the most beautiful adornment. Her make-up was flawless, thanks to a dear friend, Sharon, who made Storm look like a princess.

My precious son, Nicholas, went out and bought himself a black evening suit, crisp white shirt and a black satin bow tie.

When he got dressed at home, and showed me what he looked like, I choked up, tears came to my eyes and I suddenly wondered where those 21 years since his birth had gone! He looked so grown up, so smart, and as his two younger brothers remarked "You look like James Bond, now you need a gun." And they were right - He's never looked like this before, my son, that hyperactive flea that never slept through the night until he was two years old, who was lactose intolerant, tactile defensive, and prone to an asthma attack as soon as he developed a cough! And now here he is, all grown up, a good looking young man, with a head of naturally blond hair that anybody would envy!

Excuse my ramblings, and me going on about Nic, but any mum would understand why ...

ta-raaa .... FIRST CHALLENGE FOR PATTIE'S CREATIONS!!!!!

Pattie Gomez of Pattie's Creations Challenge Blog has just anounced the first Challenge, "Anything Goes". Now, how easy is that, to make ANYTHING with one of the oh-so-cute images featuring Pattieboop and her cat Allie.

Design Team ONE hosts this challenge, and they have made the most gorgeous projects as inspiration. Being the Lead Designer of Design Team TWO, I get to play along in this challenge ... YIPPEE ...!!!

The card I will enter for this challenge features Pattieboop as an Indian Princess, and I have coloured her in the yummy colour combination of brown and turquoise, fit for a princess. A feather, an eagle charm and stick-on butterly as embellishments, and the snakeskin embossed background paper complete my card.

Don't you just love the image??? The birthday card is perfect for a girl (of any age)!!!

Return here next week to see what I have created for the challenge hosted by Design Team TWO.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE #74

My card for this challenge features a digistamp I designed for the Digistamps4Joy online store, and is called "Rain Queen". She is coloured in coloured pencils, and the beads and sequins have been sewn on using invisible thread. The shiny silver background paper is made from the seals of coffee tins, flattened and embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The other silver BP is purchased, already embossed.
I have used satin ribbon and buckles, and a rhinestones to complete the card according to this week's prescribed sketch.

This card took a little longer to make, but my other passion is beading of belly dance costumes, and the Rain Queen was begging for some jewels. In my opinion, the extra time spent paid off as I just love this card, and hope it inspires you to go and check out the other wonderful digistamps that Digistamps4Joy has to offer, and then to play along in the really exciting Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge.

LET ME SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS ...

I belong to a group on Crafters Digital Art Centre, called Pholkart*Blessings, and the owner and creator of the group Patti Moore, has some folkart-inspired digistamps in her store. The images are just adorable, and have a certain charm that sets them apart. Here is a card made with her mermaid digistamp, and I think that it has turned into a really fun card for a young lady (of any age!) Look for the badge on the right hand side of my blog - it is easy to recognise cos the mermaid is the same as on the card I made. If you click on that badge, it should link you straight though to the shop where you can see all the other great digistamps that Patti has designed.

CLEARLY DELIGHTFUL BLOG CHALLENGE

The new challenge specifies the use of ribbon and what better ribbon to use than an organza bow?

My card for the Clearly Delightful challenge features one of the Doodle Pantry new releases, "agapanthus", another of my favourite flowers. I know I say this every time I show you one of the flower digistamps designed by Laurie, but it's my honest opinion, Laurie's a master of flower digistamps!!! Just look at the detail of this head of flowers!

I coloured my digi using watercolour and regular colour pencils. For the background paper, I used a botanical drawing of an agapanthus flower, and made the digistamp part of the background. The word "Agapnathus" and the explanation of the meaning below it, is also part of the background paper, and and everything was printed as one. The sentiment, "Many Thanks" is also part of the set digistamp set, available from the Doodle Pantry Store. I added the soft lemon organza bow to match the background paper, and a lilac puffy heart and three lilac flat backed pearls to match the soft lilac of the flowers. To make the digistamp "pop" I highlighted the flowers in crystal "Skwiglues". The frame of the card is made up of two shades of lilac, to enhance the colours of the flower.

I can't stress enough how much I enjoy creating with Doodle Pantry flower digistamps, as they are a pleasure to colour, and make up into spectacular cards.

MICHELLE PERKETT STUDIO CHALLENGE : "Girlie with Bling"

I think it's a few months since I took part in one of Michelle's challenges, and with the title "Girlie with Bling" ... now how could I resist that?

For my card I used one of Michelle images called "Olive - Life's a Beach" and coloured her usng my coloured pencils and add a good deal of crystal Skwiglues (similar to Stickles. One of the background papers I used is embossed with velvet flocking. I added a spray of flowers, an organza bow and sewed on some sequins and beads, to give the card the extra bling, and came up with a girlie with bling card.

Who says a girl can't wear blue and still look fabulous!

Glitterbabe's Thursday Challenge

Stef's Thursday Challenge this week calls for heat or dry embossing, and my card using her Floral Quilt Digistamp, incorporates both.

Let me explain how I created the quilt digi: The original quilt has only 4 squares, and I copied, cut, flipped and pasted to make nine squares. I then coloured the image using my watercolour pencils, and it was then heat embosswed using my Versamark stamp pad and clear embossing powder to which I added to crystal sparkle glitter powder. I created a wallhanging quilt by making satin ribbon tabs at top, and hand-beaded the fringing at the bottom. A kebab skewer was used as the rod.

For the sentiment section, I used dry embossing, with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and my Spellbinder Wizard. A satin ribbon, a bow and a stick-on sentiment were then added.

I just love the final product, and even though it took quite a few hours to make, it was well worth the effort.

"some odd girl" MONOCHROMATICS STYLE CHALLENGE

The current SOME ODD GIRL challenge calls for using monochromatics, and I have decided to use Angel Kaylee and colour her in shades of lilac for my entry. The gorgeous bp is actually gift wrap in such gorgeous colours and it was actually the inspiration for my colour choice. I used lots of sparkles (Skwiglues, a South African product similar to Stickles) and some flowers and a couple of featheres to make this really girly bling card.

DIGISTAMPS4JOY October Freebie for the MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE #73

I have had a chance to enter the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge once again, and for this MMSC73, I once again used a Digistamps4Joy image, the October freebie. I coloured it, stain glass window style, added some gold gel pen, and as embellishments I used flowers, flat-backed pearls and some star gems. The image was matted onto gold metallic cardstock, and then onto lilac. I love this little digistamp, it's one of my own designs in the "freckled-faced cuties" range.

GLITTERBABES SKETCH CHALLENGE

Stef's Glitterbabes group on CDAC has a sketch challenge on at the moment. In addition to the sketch, the card must be glittered, blinged and shiny. I used one of her freebie digistamps of a birdhouse, cut and pasted a few more swirls and printed it in purple ink. Then the OTT glitter treatment. Once it was dry, I sewed on some tiny, siny flower sequins (normally used for nail art) and completed the card using ribbon, flowers, and flaback pearls, according to the sketch. kinda sweet ... but o so shiny!

UPDATE - 30 SEPTEMBER ... I have just received an email to say that I won this challenge!!! YIPPEE My prize is three digistamps of my choice from the Glitterbabes store - how cool is that.

I also get a winner's badge to display on my blog, and you can see it on the right hand side....

A NEW CHALLENGE AT DIGISTAMPS4JOY

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we have all been affected by this terrible disease, either personally, or someone near and dear to us. So in support, Digistamps4Joy has decided to Think Pink for this challenge.
For my DT card I have used a digistamp I designed myself, one of a set of two, and they are available as a FREEBIE at the Digistamps4Joy challenge Blog. Included in the set is a couple of sentiments that can be used with the digistamps, and I have used “think pink”. The layout of my card is very simple, with the digistamps coloured in soft pinks using copics, watercolour and regular coloured pencils, and set in a simple oval shape. I have embellished the card with a couple of roses and stamens and added some sparkle to the bra.
I didn’t want to overwork the card, in sympathy for the seriousness of the cause, and I think I have achieved that.
Why don’t you join in the challenge and show some support for Breast Cancer Awareness. Make a card, and if you don’t have anyone to give it to, drop it off at your local Cancer Association where they will gladly use it at their next fundraising function. But before you do, remember to photograph it, and upload it to the Digistamps4Joy Challenge Blog…. You could win some great digistamps of your choice just by doing so!

A last and a couple of firsts ...

But let’s start with the “last” first… This card represents my final card as September Guest Designer for Laurie’s Doodle Pantry. I feel tremendously privileged to have been chosen as the Guest Designer, and to have had the opportunity to showcase Laurie’s awesome digistamps. This month I have come to realise that although each and every image is fabulous, the flower digistamps are definitely my favourites. Thank you for choosing me, Lawrie, and for having the confidence in my cardmaking ad colouring skills – I hope that I did your images proud!
And then for the “firsts” : This card also represents my first attempt at combining challenges, as it will be entered into Doodle Pantry’s September Challenge, as well as the MMSC72 weekly challenge.
Another first is the watercolour pencil colouring that was done on an image printed on handmade paper.
And the last “first” is the little orange flower sequins that are actually nail-art decorations.
I love the look of this card, and look forward to hearing whether you think the colouring on handmade paper is a technique I should pursue and perfect.

A SYMPATHY CARD

I was asked by a friend to make a sympathy card for her to give to a friend and I thought, what better image to use than one of Laurie's lilies! This is one of the great flower digistamps that are available in the Doodle Pantry online digishop. use the Doodle Pantry link on the right to check out the other great images that are there!
In my opinion sympathy cards need to be un-fussy and un-cluttered, and that's what I think I achieved here! The lily digistamp is matted on dark green cardstock, and then onto glossy cream cardstock. A ribbon, three flat backed pearls and simple, heartfelt sentiment complete, what I think, is a really serene card.